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I can explain why Macbeth was susceptible to manipulation by female characters in the play.

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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2023), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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Key learning points

Macbeth's lack of a male heir makes him susceptible to Lady Macbeth's manipulations.
Lady Macbeth uses Macbeth's insecurities to emasculate him.
Macbeth is more likely to believe the witches' prophecies due to his insecurities.
Macbeth's lack of a male heir makes him more likely to betray Banquo and Duncan.
Shakespeare upholds the status quo by punishing characters who do not conform to conventional gender roles.

Common misconception

Pupils believe Lady Macbeth holds most of the responsibility for Macbeth's actions.

When considering the witches' role, ask pupils which ideas can be used to counter the significance of Lady Macbeth's role in his downfall?

Keywords

External influences - external influences are factors beyond a characters control which may affect their decisions or behaviour
Susceptible - susceptible means you are liable to be influenced by something
Emasculation - emasculation is the act of depriving a man or his masculine strength or role, making him feel less masculine
Vulnerable - people who are vulnerable are exposed to harm, either physically or emotionally
Revolutionary - revolutionary can mean dramatic change or being engaged in political revolution

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Hello and welcome to the fifth lesson in the unit, \"Macbeth and Masculinity: The Struggle For Power\".

Today's title is \"Macbeth and the External Feminine Influences\".

My name is Mr. Barncy.

It's great to see you all again.

Thank you for joining me today for our lesson on \"Macbeth and External Influences\".

The outcome of today's lesson is that by the end of the lesson, hopefully you will all be able to explain why Macbeth was susceptible to manipulation by female characters in the play.

As ever, let's start with some of our key words that we should expect to come across in today's lesson.

They are external influences, susceptible, emasculation, vulnerable, and revolutionary.

So external influences are factors beyond a character's control, which may affect the decisions or their behaviour.

Being susceptible means you are liable to be influenced by something.

Emasculation, this might be a word you've looked at before when you've studied Macbeth.

Emasculation is the act of depriving a man of his masculine strength or role, ultimately trying to make him feel less masculine.

Now, people who are vulnerable, they are exposed to the possibility of harm, either physically or emotionally.

And revolutionary, can mean two things.

It can mean dramatic change or being engaged in political revolution.

So there are three parts to today's lesson.

The first, in the first, we are gonna look at the emasculation of Macbeth.

In the second part of today's lesson, we are gonna look about Macbeth and his vulnerabilities around the witches.

And then by the end of the lesson, we are gonna take a deeper look at Shakespeare, his use of gender, and the status quo.

Of course, we are gonna start though with the first section of today's lesson, and that is the emasculation of Macbeth.

Now, I think you will all be aware Lady Macbeth emasculates her husband.

This leads him to killing King Duncan.

However, if you've been following the rest of the unit, we have had a deeper exploration into Macbeth's insecurities, particularly those around the insecurities that surround his masculinity.

I want you to think, how might us having a good understanding of Macbeth's insecurities help us to explain why Lady Macbeth's tactics were successful? Why was she so successful in persuading her husband to kill the king? Why was she so successful at emasculating him? Now, I want to remind you of some of the things that Lady Macbeth says to her husband.

So in Act 1, Sc 5 she says, \"Look the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.\" In Act 1, Sc 7 she says many things to him.

She says, \"What beast was it then \"that made you break this enterprise to me?\" She says, \"Are you a man?\" And she says, \"Live a coward in thine own esteem.\" In Act 2, Sc 2 when Macbeth is kind of changing his mind about whether he wants to kill Duncan, she says, \"It is the eye of childhood, that fears the painted devil.\" And even in Act 3, Sc 4 when he's seeing the ghost of Banquo, she asks him, \"Are you a man?\" So I want you to pause the video, think about, remind yourself about Lady Macbeth's techniques and think about why is she so successful.

If we bear in mind that Macbeth has these insecurities about his masculinity.

Pause the video, take a couple of minutes and then press play when you are ready to continue.

Okay, we heard some brilliant ideas there.

What I'd like to do, rather than just collecting those ideas in, I'd like to share a model answer.

In fact, I'm gonna share two model answers.

One that gives a really clear understanding of Lady Macbeth's role.

And the second one is gonna push us to look at some more kind of challenging and nuanced interpretations.

But let's look at the first one, shall we? \"Lady Macbeth is seen \"as one of the greatest external pressures \"that affects Macbeth's decision making, \"leading to his downfall.

\"Arguably, it is her emasculation of Macbeth \"that leads to the murder of King Duncan.

\"Perhaps, Macbeth is susceptible to her manipulation \"as he feels the need to prove himself to her, \"after she questions his masculinity, 'Are you a man?' \"(Act 1, Sc 7).

\"Alternatively, it could be argued \"that Macbeth always had these ambitious tendencies, \"most clearly seen in Act 1, Sc 4, \"when he asked the 'stars' to 'hide their fires' \"as he secretly plots his journey to the throne.

\"Ultimately, \"Lady Macbeth is using emasculation as a technique \"to unlock the ambition \"that she knows exists in her husband.\" Okay, a really good answer, and it starts to touch upon those, that discussion that you've just had.

Let's have a think about why this is a really nice answer.

Well, here, when it says, \"Perhaps Macbeth is susceptible to her manipulation \"as he feels the need to prove himself to her,\" that's a really clear analysis.

She questions his masculinity and he wants to prove himself to her, really clear analysis.

I really like that it offers a different interpretation.

So actually we can say, \"Well, yes, \"he may have been influenced by his wife's emasculation, \"but also we know he had his own ambitions before \"We saw him kind of thinking about the witch's prophecies.\" So I like that it offers two sides.

And then ultimately it kind of summarises this paragraph that Lady Macbeth uses emasculation as a technique to unlock the ambition.

So I really like clear understanding of that kind of common interpretation.

She makes him feel like less of a man, so that she can unlock that internal ambition.

Now I want to have a look at how I can improve this answer by using some more of the nuanced understanding that we might have about Macbeth's insecurities.

So the fact that he doesn't have a male heir, but he still lives in a patriarchal patrilineal society where having a male heir is really important.

So let's have a look how I can enhance this already very good paragraph to make it even more nuanced, dig deeper.

\"Lady Macbeth \"is seen as one of the greatest external pressures \"that affects Macbeth's decision making, \"leading to his downfall.

\"Arguably, it is her emasculation of Macbeth \"that leads to the murder of King Duncan.\" So far all the same.

\"Perhaps, Macbeth's insecurity surrounding his patrilineage \"means he is more susceptible \"to Lady Macbeth's manipulative techniques.

\"When she cruelly questions him with, 'Are you a man?', \"Macbeth is faced with the taunting reminder \"that he has not provided his wife with a male heir.\" So I really like that this offers a more nuanced interpretation about why Macbeth is so desperate to prove his masculinity.

He's not just trying to prove his wife wrong, he's, this is really affecting him because he feels he's let his wife down because he has not provided her with a male heir.

\"In a patriarchal society based on hereditary power, \"Macbeth's lack of patrilineal line \"could cause insecurity surrounding his masculinity.\" So here I'm using contextual knowledge to support and to justify my interpretation.

I know that in a patriarchal patrilineal society, like both the Jacobean and the 11th century Gaelic societies were that not having a male heir would cause a lot of insecurities for some men.

\"Lady Macbeth, the Machiavellian Villainess \"targets this weakness through cruel jibes such as 'coward'.

\"Arguably, Lady Macbeth uses these insecurities \"to unleash Macbeth's true ambitious nature \"that had already been introduced to the audience \"in earlier scenes.\" So kind of wrapping up this paragraph with a very similar idea to the other one, that Lady Macbeth is emasculating her husband to unleash his ambitious nature.

But I'm using that more nuanced approach that this is works.

This only is effective because she knows how insecure he is.

Okay, we've just read a really, really complex high level response there.

I want us to check our understanding of everything we've done so far.

So I would like you to select two inferences, which most successfully use context to explain why Lady Macbeth emasculation is successful.

So A: As hereditary power was incredibly important in patriarchal 11th century Gaelic society, Lady Macbeth is able to successfully emasculate Macbeth by targeting insecurities around his lack of patrilineal line.

B: Lady Macbeth knows that being viewed as masculine is important in 11th century Gaelic society.

Therefore, she questions Macbeth's masculinity resulting in him wanting to prove her wrong.

C: Lady Macbeth understands the importance of masculinity in a patriarchal society.

By insinuating this is a weakness in Macbeth, she ignites his ambitious nature to prove her wrong.

All three are using context, but I want you to decide which two use it most successfully.

Select your answers and reveal them when you are ready.

Congratulations! If you picked A and C.

As I said, all three of these inferences are great inferences.

Okay, what I'm looking for is who, which of these have used context in the most successful way.

So I really liked how the first one talked about patriarchal societies and she targets the insecurities around patrilineal line.

And the second one also talks about the importance of masculinity in a patriarchal society.

So both of them mention patriarchal societies, which is a really nice bit of context to use, but I also like how C, talks about how she uses this weakness to ignite the ambitious nature of Macbeth.

Okay, we're gonna move into our first task.

So I have shared with you an excellent paragraph.

What I would like us to do to make sure we've understood why this is so successful is that we are gonna give it some feedback.

So we are gonna give it a some What Went Wells.

So we're gonna list things that it does really, really well under the Title What Went Well, WWW.

And we're gonna see, if we can really challenge ourselves, can we see anything that we would add to make it even better? So use an even better if an EBI.

Type of things you can comment on either the quality of the inferences, the vocabulary choices, the use of quotations, any analysis of language form or structure that you see, or any use of social or historical context.

So pause the video.

I want you to look at the example on the next slide and then let's spend a few minutes giving it What Went Wells and EBIs.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, let's have a look then.

So first of all, it offers nuanced interpretations.

It avoids common kind of statements like, \"He just wants to prove his wife wrong.\" I really liked how it used tentative language.

So it acknowledged that these interpretations aren't gonna be believed by everyone.

Not everyone is gonna feel that Macbeth's biggest insecurities is masculinity.

So we use tentative language to acknowledge that.

I really liked the use of adjectives.

It was doing some very subtle language analysis when we said, \"The taunting reminder.\" So that adjective \"taunting\", analyses the impact of what Lady Macbeth is doing.

There was lots of great tier two vocabulary used across the response, quotations were embedded and used to support argument, and context was woven throughout, used to enhance and justify the argument.

Now, if I really wanted to be picky and see if I could push this response any further, what kind of EBIs could I have given it? Well, well done if you saw opportunities to use some other quotations.

So for example, \"milk of human kindness\" that Lady Macbeth uses in Act 1 would've been a fantastic opportunity to embed that in this paragraph.

And I kind of finished that model answer by saying in earlier scenes, which is quite vague, it would be better to use quotation and reference exactly what I was talking about there.

But overall an excellent, excellent paragraph.

So I hope you can take some ideas away in there that you might be able to use in your own writing.

Okay, moving on to the second part of today's lesson, we're gonna look at some different external feminine influences, the witches.

Now I want us to start thinking about, are the witches truly supernatural, or are they just mischief making outsiders? And they themselves, like Lady Macbeth, are preying on the vulnerabilities of Macbeth.

So some things I want you to consider while deciding whether they are really supernatural, or they're just mischief makers.

Which of their prophecies do not come true by the end of the play? Do all of their prophecies come true? Why might this specific prophecy, the one that doesn't come true, have fueled Macbeth's self-fulfilling prophecy? So we know all of the prophecies surrounding Macbeth have come true, but start thinking about, let's have a critical, let's take a critical eye and think, well, why do all of Macbeth's come true? So I'd like you to pause the video for two minutes, have a bit of discussion and press play when you are ready to take this discussion even further.

All right, I was hearing some fantastic ideas already.

I want to see if we can dive even deeper into this discussion here.

So let's think about the prophecies and how they work in the play.

So first of all, we know that all of the witches prophecies about Macbeth do come true.

Okay? So we could, we could say, \"Well of course they're supernatural \"because everything they predict about Macbeth comes true.\" But we do know that the prophecy about Banquo does not.

Fleance does not end the play sitting on the throne.

I've put therein brackets in the play because we know that King James the first was a descendant of the real Banquo.

So it could be argued that in reality this did become true.

But in the play we don't see any evidence of this.

And we also know it is this prophecy that arguably drives Macbeth's ambitions.

So whilst Macbeth is inspired by all the prophecies about him, it is the ambition, sorry, the prophecy about bank Banquo's son Fleance, that really drives him to isolation and drives him to kill Banquo and drives him to push his wife away.

So ultimately it is the prophecy that doesn't come true that has the greatest impact on Macbeth's behaviour because fueled by the prophecy about, fueled by the prophecy about Fleance, we see him kill Banquo.

We see him kill Duncan, we see him murder MacDonwald's family.

So ultimately, all of the witch's prophecies about Macbeth come true because arguably he is responding to the prophecy about Fleance.

So that does leave us with the question, do you think the witches are specifically targeting Macbeth's insecurities when they make the prophecy about Banquo? Pause the video, have a bit of a discussion, see what you think.

This isn't only one interpretation.

There are many different interpretations.

See how this feels with your understanding of the play.

Pause the video and press play, when you are ready to continue.

Okay, let's do a quick check for understanding here.

Arguably, the witch's prophecies target Macbeth's insecurities.

So the key word here is arguably, I'm not saying this is definite, but can it, do you think true or false? Can it be argued that the witch's prophecies are targeting Macbeth's insecurities? Make your decision now.

Congratulations if you selected true.

So this doesn't mean that the witch's prophecies definitely target Macbeth insecurities, but it is true that you can argue that, you can argue the witches are specifically targeting Macbeth's insecurities.

Now let's try and justify our answer.

Which one of these two answers, both good answers, which one do you think is the most effective? So A: The witches target Macbeth's ambitious nature; their prophecies target his desires, leaving him susceptible to committing heinous crimes.

B: Macbeth's lack of male heir leaves him susceptible to the witches' manipulation.

Whilst the prophecies promised to him are enticing, Banquo's prophecy specifically targets his vulnerabilities around his masculinity.

Okay, well done if you thought B was the slightly more successful answer there.

The honest answer is both of these are really good inferences about how the witches target Macbeth, but I would argue B is more specific about his insecurities around his masculinity.

But as you can see, there are loads of really interesting things we can say about the witch's prophecies and why they are so successful with Macbeth.

So task two, we are gonna have a discussion all of these things that we have been talking through, I want us to make sure we understand them.

So let's have a quick discussion with our partners.

How responsible are the witches for the downfall of Macbeth? Pause the video, two minute quick thoughts.

Let's get them together and then we will formalise them very shortly.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Some fantastic ideas I was hearing there.

I would love now to try and formalise these ideas.

As ever we'll be using a discussion grid to support us to do that.

So let's make sure we draw comparisons between the witches and other characters.

We've got sentence terms we recognise there, whereas whilst, despite, and although.

An example of that, \"Although Macbeth is ambitious, \"the prophecies spark the initial idea of regicide.\" So comparing Macbeth's own ambition there to the witches and their prophecies and how they spark that idea in Macbeth.

I would like you to try and identify similarities between the witches and other characters, and particularly think about Lady Macbeth here.

So both, and, neither, nor, not only, but also, so both the witches and Lady Macbeth target Macbeth's vulnerabilities surrounding his patrilineage.

And finally, let's draw some conclusions to our arguments using therefore, ultimately, as a result, consequently, \"As a result, Macbeth commits terrible crimes \"all in the name of proving his masculinity.\" We've already had some quick thoughts about this question, how responsible the witches are for the downfall of Macbeth.

Now let's try and formalise these.

Pause the video.

Let's spend five minutes on this.

Off you go.

Okay, some fantastic ideas.

I can hear they are being shared.

Well done for thinking about your formality as you've been discussing those.

And what I'd like to do is collect, share some of these ideas and collect them.

And I'm really keen to do this, and focus on the witches' role because so often I hear from students that Lady Macbeth is the most responsible for Macbeth's downfall.

She manipulates him at the beginning of the play and ultimately all of his actions are result of her manipulation.

And so having an opportunity to think about the witches' role and potentially other characters' role might make us think that that idea that Lady Macbeth is just totally responsible, is probably too simplistic.

So let's have a look at the witches' role and what they can and what they do and do not, the role that they do and do not play in Macbeth's downfall.

So first of all, we have to think about, would Macbeth even have thought about kingship if it hadn't been for the witches' prophecies? And we know that Banquo's prophecy in particular fuels Macbeth's paranoia, but we do know that Lady Macbeth also targets Macbeth's masculinity.

So it would be unfair to put place all the blame on the witches.

Likewise, it would be unfair to place all the blame on Lady Macbeth.

But in all of this we've got to remember Macbeth's free will.

He is never forced into committing any crimes.

And we know right from the very beginning of the play, from before Lady Macbeth was even introduced, we see Macbeth really pondering and thinking about the witch's prophecies.

So it would be unfair to totally blame Lady Macbeth.

And we know that ultimately in Act 4, Macbeth chooses to revisit the witches.

So we really have to think, is this a man who is completely at the mercy of external feminine influences, or is he making a lot of these decisions himself? Okay, into the final parts of today's lesson, we are gonna think about Shakespeare and how he approaches gender in Macbeth and what that tells us about how he feels about the status quo.

So the first question I want to ask is, is Shakespeare a revolutionary? Now, this is a loaded term because it's very clear that Shakespeare is a revolutionary when it comes to literature.

His work has influenced authors across hundreds of years.

And actually in his writing, alone, we see some really revolutionary ideas about gender.

So for example, Lady Macbeth is a very unconventional character, but she's depicted as a very powerful character.

And this we know in a patriarchal society where women were not supposed to have powerful roles, were not supposed to show or expect power.

So in some ways, Lady Macbeth is really unconventional and revolutionary.

And also we see Macduff, a character who is supposed to represent masculinity.

When he's told of the death of his, the murder of his family, he claims that he acknowledges the trauma he feels, and he claims he must feel it like a man.

He's in touch with his emotions, something that we maybe wouldn't have expected of men of the time.

However, there are lots of signs that Macbeth wants to protect the status quo, the status quo being patriarchal societies where men are supposed to hold the power.

We see this because the female characters in the play, Lady Macbeth and the Witches both disobey the natural order and they're also presented as outsiders.

They're supernatural forces.

They're not seem to be characters that we should like or respect.

And we know that Macbeth, by the end of the play, is severely punished for being influenced by feminine forces.

And ultimately by the end of the play, we know that the natural order is resumed and the status quo is resumed.

This means that divine right of kings and gender roles, anyone seem to be stepping out of their design gender roles is punished.

So I think it's fair to say, let's ask that question to you.

Do you think it's fair to say, \"Shakespeare is a revolutionary writer\"? Or is he someone who just protects the status quo? Pause the video, have a quick two minute discussion and come back when you are ready to continue.

Some really interesting discussions there.

I think it's absolutely fair to say that Shakespeare is a revolutionary writer, but at the same time, we can acknowledge that a lot of his writing often protects the status quo and people in power.

And both of those things can be true.

All right, I would like to, now let's do a quick check for understanding.

Select two pieces of evidence which could be used to suggest that Shakespeare protects the status quo.

So A: Lady Macbeth is presented as a dominant character at the start of the play.

B: Lady Macbeth is punished for being an unconventional woman who defies expectations of gender.

C: Macbeth's downfall, in part, is due to him being influenced by female characters.

D: Macduff acknowledges the emotional trauma of his family being killed, which too suggests that Macbeth, that sorry, suggests that Shakespeare protects the status quo.

Congratulations if you picked B and C there, both of these, Lady Macbeth being punished and Macbeth being punished, these are two characters who are punished for disregarding the status quo and stepping beyond the realms of what we'd expect for gender norms at the time.

Okay, we are now onto the final task of today's lesson.

You are going to complete a paragraph in response to the question.

To what extent is Lady Macbeth responsible for Macbeth's downfall? So I have started a paragraph and I would like you to complete it for me.

And you're gonna do that by adding a critical analysis of Shakespeare's work.

You, we, yes, we are gonna be a little bit critical of the greatest playwright the world has ever known, but we are going to see if we can critique his approach to protecting the status quo.

So we're gonna use all the ideas that we've covered so far in today's lesson.

Let's start with a brief discussion though.

Just to remind ourselves so all those ideas are at the forefront of our minds.

Let's gather some ideas to help us finish this paragraph.

So I want you to think about how does the presentation of Lady Macbeth change during the play? I want you to think, what are the consequences of Lady Macbeth's actions? I want you to think, what do you think Shakespeare is saying about women who do not conform to gender norms? So basically, what is he saying about women who do not behave in a way that maybe a patriarchal society would expect them to behave? What comparisons can you make between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? What do you think Shakespeare is saying about different gender roles? And how does Shakespeare use Lady Macbeth to protect the status quo? Let's pause your videos and have a two minute discussion.

Share some ideas and then we'll get started with the writing.

Okay, some fantastic ideas.

I'm really looking forward to seeing us put these into our writing.

So you're gonna complete this paragraph, I've started it and you're gonna try and add some critical analysis of Shakespeare's protection of the status quo.

So here's the start of my writing.

\"Shakespeare's revolutionary early depiction \"of Lady Macbeth, a Machiavellian villainess \"who emasculates her susceptible husband, \"is an unconventional portrayal of women \"in a patriarchal society.

\"Lady Macbeth's dominance over her husband in Act 1, \"is rewarded when Macbeth ascends to the throne \"and she becomes queen.

\"However, by Act 5, the audience is presented \"with a very different Lady Macbeth.\" So this is the start of my essay.

I'm saying that Lady Macbeth is a really revolutionary character.

She's unconventional, she doesn't behave like women should behave because she emasculates her husband and she gets what she wants, she ends up on the throne.

But by the end of the play, everything has changed.

So I want you to complete my paragraph and try and include, analysis of how Lady Macbeth's presentation changes during the play, comparisons between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

And I want you to draw a conclusion about Shakespeare's protection of the status quo.

Pause your video, give yourself plenty of time to write and press play when we will do some self-reflection and look at a model answer.

Welcome back.

Well done.

I know I am really pushing and stretching and challenging you all now.

This is really complex work that we are doing, but we're so close to the end of this unit.

I think you can do it.

I know you can do it.

So let's take a step back now and reflect on the work that we have just written.

I want you to reread your work, assess your work, identify where you've done the following.

So where have you highlighted how Macbeth changes during the course of the play? Where have you made comparisons between the presentations of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? And where does your paragraph discuss how Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth as a warning against disrupting this status quo? Pause the video and let's just spend a couple of minutes reflecting on our own work.

Okay, we're gonna finish the lesson with me sharing a model answer.

And as we read through this, think about your own, your own bit of writing and see, are there any ideas that you could take in here to put into your paragraph or to use in future essays that you might write about Lady Macbeth.

\"So when Lady Macbeth hallucinates, \"muttering 'out damn'd spot!' to herself, \"the audience no longer sees a dominant, \"powerful wife, but an isolated weak woman.

\"Lady Macbeth's downfall \"is intrinsically linked to that of her husband.\" It means you cannot separate her downfall from her husband.

\"And arguably, \"both are being punished for defying the natural order \"and challenging conventional gender roles.\" So both characters are punished for not behaving as you would be expected to in a patriarchal society.

\"Consequently, \"Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as an outsider, \"like the witches, shunned by society for being a woman \"who fails to obey the status quo.

\"Her husband is also punished \"for failing to conform to Jacobean patriarchal ideals \"and allowing himself to be manipulated \"by external feminine influences.\" So Lady Macbeth is punished for being, for wanting to behave like a masculine man, like someone who wants power.

And Macbeth is punished because he listens to these female influences.

So my final line, \"While Shakespeare may have been a revolutionary \"in transforming English literature, \"ultimately his depiction of gender roles \"is slightly less radical.\" So my summary there is a little bit critical of Shakespeare saying he's a fantastic author, but maybe his depiction of gender were very stereotypical of the day.

So why do I like this? Well, I talk about Lady Macbeth's changes, how she changes across the play.

I make sure I compare both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

And my conclusion there is all about Shakespeare's message.

And I've even have a little bit of critical analysis about Shakespeare himself.

That's it.

We've reached the end of the lesson.

You've done a fantastic job on more complex and difficult thoughts and ideas, so well done.

Let's have a quick summary of what we've covered today in \"Macbeth and the External Feminine Influences\".

Well, first of all, we talked about how it can be argued that both Lady Macbeth and the witches manipulate Macbeth.

And we can even go so far as to argue that they take advantage of his insecurities, maybe those insecurities around his masculinity.

So in particular, as we were just saying, his lack of male heir means he's susceptible to manipulation and he's vulnerable to believing the witch's prophecies.

And we can also say that arguably, while Shakespeare clearly has revolutionised English literature, he does also punish characters who do not conform to conventional gender roles.

So ultimately, we could argue that Shakespeare upholds the status quo.

That is everything in today's lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Please make sure you challenge yourself to do the quiz, to check your understanding of everything we've covered today.

And do join us for the final lessons in the scheme, \"Macbeth and Masculinity: The Struggle for Power\".

Thank you very much.

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